“Imagine a cell phone and email all in one.”
So begins the trailer for Blackberry, which tells the story of the massively successful Canadian line of smartphones from Waterloo, Ontario-based Research In Motion.
It stars Canadian Jay Baruchel as company co-creator Mike Lazaridis and Glenn Howerton as co-CEO Jim Balsillie. blackberry had its world premiere at the Berlin Film Festival in February and screened at the Austin Texas South By Southwest festival on Tuesday.
Like the movie itself, the trailer charts the rise and fall of the Blackberry, starting with Lazaridis and company co-creator Douglas Fregin (played by director Matt Johnson) bringing in Balsillie as CEO. .
Watch: BlackBerry Trailer
Later, a group of executives are presented with a prototype of the titular smartphone.
“Try typing with your thumbs,” suggests Lazaridis.
The film was adapted from the 2015 book Losing the Signal: BlackBerry’s Spectacular Rise and Fallby Sean Silcoff and Jacquie McNish.
” At one point [Research in Motion] controlled 50% of the mobile phone market,” director Johnson told CBC’s Elamin Abdelmahmoud in an interview on Hustle last month.
“There was a shining moment, when a Canadian company had more control over the cellphone market than Apple does now.”
Blackberry hits theaters May 12 and will be available on CBC and CBC Gem early next year.